President Arroyo allots P100B for Metro Cebu’s proposed mass rail system

CEBU CITY, Nov. 7 (PNA) – Rep Eduardo R. Gullas (Cebu, first district) said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has allotted P100 billion in support of the Light Rail Transit-Mono Rail Transit (LRT-MRT) project for Metro Cebu.

Gullas, who has been working for the establishment of a mass transit system for Cebu over the last 12 years, said they convinced President Arroyo that outside of Metro Manila, if there is another area where an LRT-MRT would be viable, it would be Metro Cebu.

”For that reason, she appropriated a hundred billion for the Cebu LRT-MRT and the Mindanao Railways. And that started off with the DOTC (Department of Transportation and Communication) as the lead agency,” Gullas said.

But Gullas reiterated that the project will not push through if Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena would continue to oppose it because Cebu City is the link between Talisay City and Mandaue City in the LRT component.

”It’s a pity because studies would show that the cheapest means of transportation in the world is a railway. Perhaps, future and younger leaders in Cebu will then have the opportunity to unite and push projects like this,” Gullas said.

Gullas said all the local government units (LGUs) in southern Cebu, such as Talisay City, Minglanilla, Naga City, San Fernando, Carcar City, Sibonga, Argao and Dalaguete already endorsed the LRT-MRT project.

But anticipating that proponents of the LRT-MRT will bypass the Cebu City Government, Osmena vowed to lobby against it before the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the foreign funding agencies.

Osmena reiterated that the proposed LRT-MRT project would be another lamppost scandal, and said he did not want the city’s taxpayers to pay for the cost of the project.

He referred to the purchase of street lamps that the Ombudsman’s office said were probably overpriced.

Osmena said he was sure the proponents would try to implement the US$ 600-million LRT-MRT project even without the required endorsement of the Cebu City Government.

”They will try and we will fight it. We’ll make it clear to the lending institution that we’re not going to go along with this scam. We will also go to NEDA,” he said.

But Gullas said that the fear of Osmena that the LRT-MRT project was a fundraising for the upcoming elections had no basis since it would be implemented under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.

”It will be at no cost at all to the National Government because the proponent will raise the funds, implement the project, operate the project for 25 years and to their study, I am sure they will recover their investment within that period, and turn it over to the local government. So, I do not see how this can lead to scam or corruption,” Gullas said.

Rep. Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd district) said the LRT-MRT project would benefit the entire Province of Cebu, including the people of Cebu City.

Garcia said the concerns raised by Osmena were not reasons to block the project. What the mayor should do, he said, was to be vigilant about how the project would be undertaken, or to constantly monitor its implementation.

He said the proposed LRT-MRT fare was also not an issue because operators would always succumb to market forces.